1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to home network systems interoperable with wireless terminals, and more particularly to a wireless terminal-interoperable home network system wherein a home server is provided to manage the home network system, and a wireless terminal located at a remote site is interoperable with the home server, thereby enabling a user to rapidly recognize a situation in a home from anywhere outside of the home and to ascertain the position of a member of his/her family, not at home, when he/she is present in the home.
2. Description of the Related Art
In home network systems, generally, a plurality of home appliances installed in each home are equipped with network interfaces, respectively, so that they can be networked so as to be controllable over an internal network. The internal network may employ a power line or local area network (LAN) line, but is not limited thereto herein.
With the rapid spread of the Internet, followed by the significant increase in the number of Internet users, recently, home servers for management/control of home network systems have been equipped with Internet modems so that home appliance users can not only collect information over the Internet in homes, but also access the home servers over the Internet from remote locations to control home appliances connected to internal networks.
The configuration of one such conventional home network system will hereinafter be described with reference to FIG. 1.
A plurality of home appliances are connected in common to an internal network (referred to hereinafter as a ‘home network’) constructed in a home, and equipped respectively with network interfaces 1 that enable the corresponding home appliances to transmit and receive data over the home network.
The home appliances equipped with the network interfaces 1 are controlled or monitored by a home server 2, which manages the flow of data transmitted and received over the home network. The home server 2 is connectable with the Internet as long as it is equipped with a network modem.
Therefore, a home appliance user can control the plurality of home appliances connected to the home network from a remote location by accessing the home server 2 over the Internet from the remote location and sending control commands thereto, through the use of an Internet accessible control device such as a personal computer (PC) or notebook computer.
However, the above-mentioned conventional home network system has a disadvantage in that the user can check state information of the home appliances connected to the home network only when accessing the home server by operating an Internet accessible control device, so he/she cannot readily monitor the states of the home appliances from the remote location when he/she has difficulty in using a PC because of his/her movement or the Internet is inaccessible.
For this reason, unless the user artificially accesses the home server 2 using a control device such as a PC, he/she has a limitation in recognizing a dangerous situation occurring in the home in his/her absence. As a result, provided that the user is out for a short time leaving his/her baby alone in the home or stays away from the home for a long time, he/she will be anxious that an outsider may intrude into the home.
In particular, even in the case where a dangerous situation requiring immediate attention, such as a fire or gas leak, occurs in the home, the user cannot recognize it unless he/she accesses the home server 2 over the Internet, resulting in a concern that the dangerous situation could lead to a major accident.